Trip to the sandbox.

I got a shower and was sweating the second I got out. Made shaving
with the electric razor a little less effective! The shower/bathroom
units are called "cadillacs." I guess it is because the are an upgrade
to the old shower/shave tent. Essentially they are trailers with
showers, sinks, and toilets but have little to no air conditioning and
smell like porta potties that have been in the sun too long. Lovely eh?

I got a 3 hr nap so i am ferling a bit better. The tent like thing I
sleeping in has 22 bunk beds for 44 people. Right now my tent is 1/3
full. Of course when I got in there was only one person in the entire
place and he was sleeping in my bunk so I just took another one.
Hopefully I will not cause the same issue for someone else. I have all
my "3-day gear" stowed in a footlocker. The other 200 lbs of gear is
in a bin being palletized for shipping to Baghdad so I cannot get at
that. I mostly have what I need for my anticipated short stay.

The tent AC is currently keeping the temp at about 80 degrees so it is
livable.

So, the temp is about 97 degrees and somewhat humid. Baghdad is 117
and more dry. I hope the dry heat does not feel 20 degrees hotter than
this does!

If you cannot tell, I am doing everything on my iTouch right now
because it is easier than lugging around my laptop. I have my iTouch
in an armband so I can carry it with me from wifi zone to wifi zone.
Everyone appears to have laptops and are constantly searching out
power outlets and wifi. We are slaves to how we communicate. This is
so much better than sending letters home that take weeks to get there.

The uniform from now on is the ABU ( new camo uniform that is very
hot) or PT gear, no civilian cothes at all. PT gear is the Air Force
t-shirt and shorts that have no pockets except for an ID card slot. No
place for a wallet or keys so I keep my wallet locked up, my ID card
in the slot and my foot locker key on my dog tags around my neck.

I got some dinner at the dining facility which is not too bad. Later
my group met up to discuss our flight plans. We leave for Baghdad
tomorrow afternoon after a couple hrs of out processing, starting with
linen turn in at 1:30pm. That is the same time as the LDS church
service so I will miss that.

It is 9:00pm here so I will stay up a bit longer before trying to get
some sleep. I want to acclimate to this timezone soonest. By the way
it started to get dark by 6:30pm which seemed odd for this time of year.

Still have not seen a single plant on this portion of the base.

Love to all,
Gary